Click.

  Click-click-click.

  Clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick.

  The mine echoed with the sounds of a thousand skittering legs.

  "That's… a lot of spiders," I muttered, backing up toward the nearest wall, eyes wide.

  Elise already had her bow drawn. "Understatement of the century."

  From every direction—walls, ceiling, floor—Web Lurkers poured in. Not one, not ten—hundreds. Adult ones, baby ones, medium-sized nightmare-fuel ones. They moved like a living tide, their red eyes glowing like hellish embers in the torchlight.

  "Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit—" I panicked, opening my marketpce mid-retreat.

  Seraphina stepped forward, completely unfazed, staff glowing. "Knights, form ranks! Push them back—do not let them through!"

  Her soldiers fell into formation like a well-oiled machine, shields up, spears out, glowing enchantments bursting to life across their armor.

  "Garron!" Elise called out. "Front line, left fnk!"

  "On it!"

  The knights smmed into the swarm, weapons fshing. The battle turned into chaos, legs flying, acid spraying, webbing tangling limbs.

  I flipped through my market with sweaty fingers, heart racing. "C’mon, c’mon—there! There it is!"

  Spider, No Spidering – 500.00Guaranteed to turn one monstrous arachnid into a pile of regrets.

  "That’s the one," I hissed, clicking Buy.

  The arrow dropped into my hands—gleaming, runed, with that same glowing red tip I remembered from the Empress fight.

  I clutched it like a lifeline. "Elise!"

  She turned, barely dodging a spray of acid from a Web Lurker that got too close.

  I tossed her the arrow. "Light ‘em up!"

  "You sure this’ll work again?!"

  "I’m 70% sure!"

  "What happened to 100?!"

  "Inftion!"

  Elise didn’t argue. She notched the arrow, took aim toward the rgest, densest cluster of Web Lurkers surging in through a tunnel opening—and fired.

  The arrow exploded mid-flight.

  Not on impact—mid-flight. A wave of burning mist erupted outward, bnketing the tunnel. The spiders shrieked and convulsed, their bodies bckening, legs curling in as the chemical fire spread through their ranks like a divine reckoning.

  "What the fuck?" I gasped. "That was even stronger than st time!"

  Seraphina looked over her shoulder at me, eyes narrowed. "What manner of enchanted item is that?"

  "Home Depot’s finest," I muttered.

  Still, there were too many spiders. The arrow wiped out dozens—maybe a hundred—but the swarm kept coming. They were crawling over their fallen brethren, pouring from tunnels in the walls, climbing over the knights’ shields, screeching with rage.

  "We’re gonna get overrun!" Rowan shouted, hurling a dagger that embedded itself in one spider’s eye—right before another tackled him to the ground. Garron yanked it off, cleaving it in half.

  "Dan!" Elise shouted. "Tell me you got more of those arrows!"

  "That’s not in the budget!"

  "Then start using that scam skill of yours and pull something out of your ass!"

  I ducked behind a rock, yanked open my marketpce, and started frantically typing. "Wide area fire, spider death, affordable, effective, help me god"—nothing practical came up.

  "Why does everything cost thousands?!" I groaned, scrolling past fmethrowers and napalm.

  Then I paused. "Wait… idea."

  I clicked the Buy button again, this time for the fmmable liquid I still had stored. I quickly pulled out one of the cy jars Marta gave me, filled it with liquid, grabbed a rag from my bag, jammed it in, lit it with my lighter—

  And hurled the Molotov cocktail into a nearby group.

  WHOOMPH.

  A roaring bze erupted, burning through spider webbing, igniting legs, shriveling bodies. I stood there, slightly proud of myself, until another acid spit narrowly missed my face.

  "Okay, okay, more fire. Got it."

  Elise had lit a second cocktail I tossed her, hurling it into another corner of the swarm.

  Seraphina raised her staff again. "Lux Purificatum!"

  A radiant wave of holy energy pulsed from her, burning any spiders in a ten-meter radius to ash.

  "Alright," I said, panting. "Maybe we won’t die after all."

  Rowan crawled up beside me, covered in webbing. "You owe me."

  "I’ll give you a bonus if you survive."

  "That’s not encouraging."

  The st screech of a Web Lurker faded into silence, followed by the crackling of lingering fmes and the heavy breathing of exhausted knights. The ground was littered with twisted, charred spider corpses, burned webs, and the smell of victory mixed with bug guts.

  I stood there, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. "Welp… that wasn’t horrifying at all."

  "That was excessive," Rowan muttered, dragging himself out of a pile of dead spiders. "Why are there so many legs in my pants?"

  "Because karma hates you."

  "Fair."

  While the others regrouped, treated the wounded, and put out what was left of the Molotov fires, I did what any self-respecting opportunist would do: I opened my marketpce and started selling everything that didn’t move.

  Baby Web Lurker Corpse ×57 — 25 eachAdult Web Lurker Corpse ×13 — 45 eachPartially Incinerated Corpse Remnants — 2 to 4 each (depending on how crispy)

  Total haul: 1,878.00.

  "Cha-ching," I whispered, eyes gleaming. "I love capitalism."

  I dusted my hands off and wandered a bit further into the mine while everyone else was patching each other up. Just casually looking around, minding my own business… when I saw it.

  A faint glint along the wall.

  I crouched down, eyes narrowing. "No way."

  Sure enough—another chunk of gold embedded in the rock. A fat, glorious little nugget just waiting to be noticed. I looked around—everyone else was still distracted. Seraphina was casting minor blessings, Elise was sharpening her arrows, and Garron was checking the fallen.

  I reached out, pried the nugget free, and casually slipped it into my pouch.

  Raw Gold Nugget — 2,320.00

  "This pce isn’t just crawling with death… it’s shitting money," I whispered to myself. "This is a goddamn gold mine."

  Literally.

  I was almost giddy, but I shoved that down quick. No one could know yet. If word got out, they’d want a cut.

  "Nope," I muttered, patting the pouch. "This is my little secret."

  Elise wandered over, wiping spider guts off her sleeves. "Hey, you done pying merchant?"

  "Always time to make a buck," I said casually.

  "You didn’t happen to find anything suspicious, did you?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

  I smiled innocently. "Just a bunch of dead spiders. And maybe a few coins worth of scrap."

  "Right."

  Rowan limped over, his entire left side covered in web residue. "Can we go home now, or is the Queen about to show up next? Because honestly, I don’t think I have enough stabbing left in me."

  "Knowing our luck," I said, looking deeper into the mine, "she’s probably waiting just around the next corner."

  Seraphina walked up then, her pristine robes untouched—because of course they were. "Everyone, prepare yourselves. That was only the outer swarm. The deeper chambers are still ahead, and the Queen will be waiting."

  I groaned. "Yup. There it is."

  She raised an eyebrow at me. "What’s wrong, merchant? You look pale."

  "Just realizing how much I hate dungeons."

  She gave me a small, mysterious smile. "But don’t worry—you’ll be safe. The gods are watching over you."

  "Great," I muttered. "Can they watch over me from a safe distance? Preferably with popcorn?"

  We were supposed to be wrapping up.

  That was the pn. The ogre was dead, the spider infestation had been exterminated, and my bank bance was looking better than ever thanks to all the corpses I sold along the way.

  But then we saw the blood.

  Not fresh—dried, cracked, crusted on the stone walls of a half-colpsed tunnel that split off from the main path. There were drag marks, like something had been dragged—or someone.

  Everyone went quiet.

  Even Seraphina, who had been lecturing a knight about proper purification technique, stopped mid-sentence.

  "This wasn’t caused by the monsters," she said, crouching beside the smeared red streaks. "This blood is no older than a week."

  A chill ran up my spine. "Wait, a week? As in... recent-recent?"

  "Yes," she confirmed, eyes narrowing.

  "Which means someone’s been down here," Elise muttered, her hand going to her bow.

  "What if it’s the guy behind the disease?" I blurted out.

  Everyone turned to look at me.

  "Think about it!" I waved toward the blood trail. "It all makes sense. The disease didn’t just pop up. Maybe this was his hideout. Maybe he’s still here. Creeping around in the shadows, casting evil curses and drinking suspicious potions."

  "Or maybe you’ve read too many books," Garron said.

  "Or maybe I’m the only one using my brain," I snapped back.

  Surprisingly, Seraphina nodded.

  "It’s not impossible," she said. "If this was part of a coordinated attack across multiple vilges, a base of operations would make sense."

  I lit up. "See! Even the crazy priestess agrees with me!"

  "I’m not crazy," she said, deadpan.

  "Debatable."

  But then something else caught my eye.

  We turned a bend in the tunnel—and the walls sparkled. Literally.

  Blue. Jagged. Crystals. Embedded in the rock like someone sprinkled magic sugar everywhere.

  "Whoa," Rowan whispered. "What are those?"

  Seraphina’s eyes widened. "Mana-infused crystals. The king's schors believed this mine held a rich vein, but it was never confirmed."

  "Well, it’s confirmed now," I muttered, stepping closer.

  They shimmered with raw energy. Just standing near them made my skin tingle.

  Naturally, my first thought wasn’t awe or reverence or magical potential.

  It was: “Can I sell this?”

  So I opened my menu, reached out, and tapped the edge of one of the crystals.

  15,000.For ONE.

  I nearly choked. "Holy fu—"

  "What is it?" Elise asked.

  "Uh—nothing! Just… admiring the craftsmanship." I coughed and turned away quickly.

  Okay, okay. So I couldn’t just yank one off the wall in front of the entire royal priestess squad. That’d raise a few eyebrows.

  So I did the next best thing—leaned casually against the wall like I wasn’t plotting petty theft, reached behind me, and gently tapped one of the smaller, loose shards.

  3,500.Still a win.

  I accepted the sale—and watched the small crystal vanish into thin air.

  No one noticed. Hopefully.

  "You look guilty," Elise said, watching me.

  "What? No. This is just my normal face."

  "Your normal face looks like it just stole something."

  "Then you must be seeing things."

  As the group kept moving forward, Seraphina’s knights lit more torches, casting light deeper into the unexcavated passage.

  More blood. More crystal veins. More ominous silence.

  And one very smug Dan, who was already pnning what to do with his next 3,500.

  “So…” I said, eyes still glued to the glittering wall of magical wealth. “We’re in agreement, right? This is where we should stay. This is the good path. The holy path. The path paved with fat stacks of money.”

  “No,” Seraphina replied bluntly.

  Garron pointed toward a branching tunnel further back. “This isn’t the route to the Queen Web Lurker’s nest. The actual nest is down that way. We took a wrong turn earlier.”

  My shoulders slumped. “Of course we did.”

  “An easy mistake,” Seraphina added, then paused. “Now let’s move.”

  “Actually,” I said quickly, “I volunteer as tribute—to stay here and, uh… study the crystals. You know, for science. I’ll just sit back and keep them warm.”

  “No,” Elise said.

  “You didn’t even let me finish.”

  “No,” Seraphina echoed, not even looking back.

  Rowan snickered somewhere behind me. “He really thought that would work.”

  I sighed dramatically and dragged my feet as we doubled back. “I had a dream once,” I muttered. “A dream where I was rich, lounging in a chair made of gold. That dream is gone now.”

  “No one cares,” Garron said.

  “I care,” I replied.

  We turned into the new tunnel, and instantly, the air changed.

  The walls weren’t stone anymore—they were webbed, thick with silk so heavy it felt like walking into a cocoon. Multiple sets of eyes shimmered from the darkness, glowing faintly.

  “Okay,” I whispered, “this is worse.”

  “No kidding,” Elise muttered, already drawing her bow.

  Even Seraphina’s expression grew grim. Her knights began spreading out defensively.

  And then we saw it.

  A hulking mass of limbs and fangs, nearly twice the size of the st queen. Eight soulless bck eyes. Acid dripping from its fangs. Legs like sharpened spears.

  The Queen Web Lurker.

  I blinked. “I miss the ogre.”

  The queen let out a screech, so loud it echoed off the tunnel walls and made my brain rattle in my skull. The webs trembled, and from the shadows, a horde of spiders began crawling out.

  Babies. Adults. Dozens. Maybe hundreds.

  “…Okay,” I said slowly, backing up. “Now I really miss the ogre.”

  Rowan already had a dagger in each hand. “So… pn?”

  “You shoot, I run.” I said.

  “I hate that pn,” Rowan said immediately.

  “You’re not running,” Seraphina snapped. “You’re helping.”

  “I am helping,” I argued. “I’m helping by being alive.”

  The Queen shrieked again—and the swarm charged.

  “I regret everything,” I muttered, pulling out my arrow bomb purchase.

  Elise looked at me. “You ready?”

  “No. But I’m doing it anyway.”

  “I can end this,” Seraphina said, lifting her staff high as mana surged around her. Her golden hair fluttered in the sudden rush of magical wind. “But I need thirty seconds. I cannot move while casting.”

  “Thirty seconds?” I blinked. “That’s like… four years in spider time.”

  Seraphina didn’t even look at me. “Knights! Form a perimeter. Protect me with your lives!”

  Her knights responded like a well-oiled machine, shields up, weapons drawn, forming a perfect defensive ring around their glowing saint.

  I raised a finger. “Cool, cool. Quick question—what about us?”

  Seraphina’s eyes remained closed. She didn’t respond.

  “Okay. Great talk,” I said ftly. “So we’re expendable. Got it.”

  I turned to the others. “Alright guys, form a line around me! Protect the merchant!”

  Nothing.

  Not even a pity gnce.

  Elise casually walked past me, knocking an arrow. “Yeah, no one’s forming around you.”

  Garron drew his sword. “Try not to die.”

  Rowan melted into the shadows.

  “TRAITORS!” I hissed.

  The horde of spiders surged closer—walls, ceilings, floor. It was like being inside a living nightmare.

  I held up my hands. “Okay, okay—pn B! Let’s just set this pce on fire!”

  Suddenly, everyone perked up.

  “Fire?” one of the knights echoed.

  “Yes,” I nodded quickly. “Webs are fmmable. You know what webs hate? FIRE.”

  Another knight grinned. “I like this merchant.”

  “I’m not a merchant,” I muttered. “I’m just a broke guy with a skill.”

  Elise turned to me, wide-eyed. “Wait, do you still have that fmmable liquid from earlier?”

  I grinned. “Oh, do I.”

  I quickly pulled a jar from my backpack. “One good toss and this whole pce will light up like a birthday cake on meth.”

  “Language,” Seraphina said calmly from behind her wall of knights.

  “You’re literally about to explode a tunnel full of demonic spiders,” I snapped. “Let me have this.”

  I tossed the jar toward the swarm. It shattered against the webs, soaking a massive area in front of us.

  “Someone light it up!”

  One of the knights took the hint and unched a firebolt from his enchanted sword.

  WHOOMPF!

  A massive bze roared through the mine tunnel, devouring webs and baby spiders in seconds. The heat bsted against my face, but I grinned through it.

  “Ohhh yeah! Burn, you creepy little bastards!”

  The Queen Web Lurker shrieked, retreating slightly. Some of her brood roasted mid-screech.

  “FIFTEEN SECONDS!” Seraphina shouted, still glowing like a divine disco ball.

  “KEEP THEM BACK!” Garron yelled, sshing down another adult spider.

  I spun to sell a spider corpse, cha-ching! +45, and shouted, “Elise, cover me! I’m raking in profits!”

  “I’m literally fighting for my life and you’re making money?!”

  “This is how I cope!”

  More fire spread, knights cshing against incoming waves, smoke curling through the tunnel, and me—desperately swiping spider corpses into my marketpce like a stockbroker on Bck Friday.

  “THREE SECONDS!” Seraphina’s voice echoed.

  “Oh thank god,” I muttered. “Please be a nuke.”

  The spell finished with a thunderous pulse of divine light, and a holy wave of radiant energy surged through the mine, incinerating every st spider in its path.

  The horde colpsed in a matter of seconds.

  Smoke. Ash. Silence.

  Then me, standing in the middle of it all, covered in soot and spider guts, whispering, “Holy shit.”

  Garron let out a tired breath. Elise flopped against a wall. Rowan appeared again like a ghost.

  I looked down at the pile of corpses I’d managed to swipe. A nice 765 made in spider loot alone. Not bad. Not bad at all.

  Then I spotted another golden nugget in the wreckage.

  My smile stretched wider. This pce really is shitting money.

  I leaned against the wall and casually sold the nugget. 2,320 more added.

  “Gods,” I muttered, “this is the best dungeon I’ve ever hated.”

  I stared at the new [OWNERSHIP] tab like it had personally insulted me.

  Clicking it again, the list expanded further, but this time, each property had a price tag next to it.

  Property Ownership: Viskar Vilge — 3,000,000Mining Rights: Abandoned Viskar Mine — 15,000And below that, a neat little breakdown appeared under the mine:

  Viskar MineStatus: Abandoned (Potential Cimed)Resources:

  3x Gold Veins6x Mana Infused Crystal VeinsUnknown Depth (Excavation Recommended)Potential Hostile Entities: ConfirmedTransfer of ownership will initiate Buy & Sell territorial tracking and passive cim registration.I rubbed my chin, feeling very serious and important.

  “Elise,” I said without looking up, “who owns this vilge?”

  She blinked. “Uh, technically the local lord. Baron Harvick.”

  “Harvick… sounds like a guy with a comb-over and back taxes.”

  “No idea what that means.”

  “Don’t worry about it. How does someone become a baron, anyway?”

  She squinted. “You asking how to become a noble?”

  “Yup.”

  “Uh… You either marry into it, inherit it, or get granted a title by the king. Why?”

  I gave a very thoughtful nod. “Cool. Cool cool cool. Totally unreted follow-up question: How do mining rights work?”

  Elise frowned. “You usually have to buy them from the lord. Or have them granted to you. Why?”

  “No reason,” I said far too quickly. “Just curious. You know, building my knowledge base. Being a proactive member of society.”

  Elise narrowed her eyes. “You’re pnning something.”

  “Absolutely not,” I lied. “I’m just a humble merchant. A schor. A man of the people.”

  Garron passed by, sweaty and bloodied from battle. “That’s a load of horse shit.”

  I ignored him and turned back to my screen. I looked at the 15,000 price tag again. I had just over 37,000 in my account.

  I bit my lip. Was it a bad idea?

  Yes.

  Was I going to do it anyway?

  Absolutely.

  “Let’s do this,” I whispered like a madman.

  I clicked [Purchase Mining Rights: Viskar Mine].

  Confirm Purchase?Price: 15,000Ownership Transfer: ImmediateWarning: Taxes may apply depending on regional w and government enforcement.

  Confirm.

  A little jingle pyed.

  Ding!

  Congratutions! You are now the registered owner of the Viskar Mine.

  My account dropped down to 22,101.21.

  But I was now, apparently, a mine owner.

  Dan of Viskar. Lord of Rocks. Spider Syer. Occasional Food Hoarder. Budget Land Baron.

  I looked around at the others—Elise, Garron, the knights, Seraphina—all talking, checking bodies, inspecting walls, being normal people.

  And here I was, smiling like an idiot with a glowing Mine Owner tag in my system.

  This mine was officially mine.

  And I wasn’t telling a single soul.

  At least… not yet.